City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] okay we'll go ahead and get us started here good evening everyone thanks for coming this evening and thanks for those recording in progress thanks for those attending online tonight um before we begin I wanted to uh read a couple of announcements just give me a second here taking some notes um Bellingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public meetings act and before we begin I we want to acknowledge that we're gathered here on the traditional and unseated territory of the Lumi noack samish and samama people who have cared for and tended this land since time immemorial truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of Heritage and difference We Begin this um effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth we pay respect to their Elders past and present please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence displacement migration and settlement that bring us here together today and please join us in uncovering such truths at any and all public events and I just wanted to provide language uh access uh announcement as well language thank you um couple other announcements upcoming public hearing uh on a util utility easement on November 4th 2024 Bellingham city council will hold a public hearing to take comment on a proposed resolution providing for the city to relinquish a portion of uh General utility easement encumbering a portion of the property commonly

known as 701 and 705 North State Street detailed information can be found at meetings. cob.org 5 days prior to the hearing uh last announcement upcoming public hearing 2025 budget November 4th 2024 Bellingham city council will hold a second public hearing to receive comment on the proposed 2025 budget the proposed budget can be found at cob.org goov budget or in the finance department on the first floor of City Hall detailed information can be found at meetings.

cob.org 5 days prior to the hearing go ahead oh I was just waiting for you to finish I I know that there was a public notice provided but I noticed it wasn't included in our announcements about the joint meeting that's this Thursday at 6 PM it's a joint meeting between the city council and the Planning Commission um so 6 PM this Thursday the 24th and that will be at the Pacific Street operations center um so that's a public meeting it is yeah open to the public thank you okay uh roll call Hannah Stone here OE hman here skip Williams here Lisa Anderson here Michael lillquist here Jay scotton here Dan Hamill here all council members are present thank you all right we have two public hearings this evening the first one is a public hearing on the 2025 Revenue projections including a 1% increase to the regular property tax levy this public hearing will provide a high level overview of anticipated general fund revenues for 2025 RCW 84551 120 requires a public hearing on Revenue sources for the taxing District's following Year's current expense budget hearing must include consideration of a possible increase to property tax revenues the administration is proposing to increase property taxes by the statutorily allowed 1% for 2025 the ordinance setting the 202 property tax levy must be passed by the end of November to take effect for 2025 here to take a Ser Force longin Deputy Administrator yeah thank you very much uh yeah this is our required 2025 revenue forecast to go along with

our 2025 budget this will excuse me f Focus exclusively on the general fund um in the context of that 1% property tax increase that we are proposing so first uh just looking at the general economic Outlook I've got two charts on the right hand side here the top one is the pce the personal consumption expenditures that's the federal reserve's p uh preferred measure of inflation and that is to show that here we are over here and inflation has been coming down pretty dramatically from 2022 so we're seeing we're almost to that dotted Dash red line which is 2% which is the Federal reserve's target for inflation uh that has resulted in coming down a little bit from our 5.5% interest rates down to five around 5% interest rates so that half% interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve um was driven by inflation coming down this is good for Bellingham in general because bellingham's tax revenues are fairly reliant on lower interest rates to drive that construction activity and vehicle sales so the big question is is this the big soft Landing that economists have been talking to us about um I guess we can say we hope so fingers crossed um but there's always that possibility of recession in our future uh the Washington State economic and revenue forecast board thinks that it's is the soft Landing um and they're forecasting 2% US GDP growth next year and Beyond looking at how our revenues have been performing for 2024 uh in as much as that influences our outlook for 2025 uh in general

our 2024 revenues are not meeting expectations uh this chart on the right here is sales tax revenues on a year-over-year basis percent change from year to year so looking at the percent change from August of one year to the next August or this September to the next September um shown as uh that dark blue line with the green line being zero so anything above is positive growth on a year-over-year basis and anything below is revenue reductions negative growth on a year-over-year basis so you can see down here in 2008 spent a bunch of time below the line with revenues declining Co things went a little haywire and we're over here um we're spending a little time below the line so that's this revenues missing targets by $2 to $3 million uh we've missed uh We've we've seen negative growth in four I'm sorry five of the last nine periods here from our sales tax so that's a little concerning and we can really tie a lot of it to those interest rates we were talking about so this uh big circle on the left here shows the various things that our sales tax revenue comes from with uh the five major portions that represent around 10% each or thereabouts on the right hand side and we can see over here the change uh year-over-year for those so motor vehicle parts and dealers that's pretty reliant on interest rates being low that's come down construction of buildings also has come down quite a bit and I will say there's a lot of construction in this all others uh under other um under head other

headings as well digging in a little deeper to um our local economy and what's going on with the construction industry this the leftand chart here is permit activity year to date so the bars the dark bar is permits the lighter bar is units and the green is the value of those permits and this is to show that although we did have a big outlier year in 2021 we are on a decline and 2024 represents the lowest it's been particularly on a per unit basis in quite some time and the chart on the right illustrates that in the context of the interest rate with this um blue and green line uh the permit Revenue uh pre- rate hike interest rate hikes and post interest rate hiked and the big curve being the interest rates changes and there are some trend lines to show how things changed you can see rates uh sorry permit Revenue dropped off as soon as those rates started going up the trend shifted similarly in the housing market um for the Bellingham area we've seen a lot more listings we're seeing listing price come down a bit over the last uh year or so um and a similar chart over here showing those listing prices and how the trajectory has changed when the interest rates changed so all of that uh sort of suppresses construction to some degree um and is reflected in our sales tax revenues and business and occupation tax revenues so looking forward into 2020 25 how that all translates we are assuming um that soft Landing that we kind of return to growth uh at a more traditional rate

historically um we are following the city's revenue forecast model for sales tax and business and occupation tax and which suggests that and we are assuming that Council approves the 1% uh statutorily allowed increase to property tax there are risks of course to the forecast that stubborn and inflation slows or reverses those interest rate reductions um that maybe that leads the soft Landing to give way to a recession and then any political disruptions on federal or uh the state level could impact uh our funding Less in the general fund but definitely in the grants and infrastructure Arena we are making uh some changes and we've we've spoke to council about this quite a bit so far but for the of the public hearing to our Revenue portfolio uh we're increasing the sales tax allocation the general fund to 68% reducing the piece that goes to the street fund by 5% we have historically taken our sales tracks revenues and divided it among those two funds and we're just changing the how that allocation works we are temporar temporarily diverting property taxes from our fully funded pre- firefighters pension to the general fund to support increased property uh Public Safety costs um that's about $2.8 million in Revenue we're using interest from the city's cash pool and Investments to support the general fund and we're increasing uh proposing to increase a solid waste utility tax from 11 a half to 17 and a qu% to support remediation efforts next we're going to look at the forecast for

our big four Revenue sources so that's uh sales tax business and occupation tax utility tax and property tax excuse me Each of which represent about 20% of our general fund revenues with another 20% coming from a big bucket of other things uh so on all these charts you will see a blue line that is the history a yellow line that is the projection or the forecast and uh a dash trend line all of which tend to exclude 2020 because of the outlier uh activities that happen there so 2024 we had a growth rate of about 0% where we was actually had predicted 4.7% 2025 we see a a big growth there in sales tax revenue uh but that's mostly that allocation change that I just spoke about the underlying uh increase is 2.6% so that's what the for that's the forecasted growth uh the right hand side here is just to show how our model has been performing since we started using it um with the yellow line being the weighted forecast and the green and the red being the upper and lower confidence intervals so we've been performing pretty well uh missed a little bit this year as revenues slowed down as discussed um for next year we are waiting it a little bit towards uh the lower so we have built into the Model 8 80% that it hits the forecast and 20% that it uh that it's lower so that is that weighted forecast that gives us that 26% growth historically over the long term our growth rate has been about 3% looking at our next major Revenue Source bno uh we use a similar model for this but uh as it

turns out uh our previous approach to this which was just mimicking the growth rate for sales tax turned out to be pretty accurate um these two are correlated about 97% so that growth for 20 24 again was 0% in bno tax and for 2025 uh looking at a 2.6% growth in this as well our third major tax is our utility tax so that is made up of these various utilities over here not the solid waste as we mentioned before that goes into a discrete fund for environmental remediation and cleanups but it is uh all our other utility taxes go into this um some of those are internal which is Water waste water and storm water and the rest are external uh this Revenue source is a much more Dynamic it's fairly easy to predict our internal sources because they're tied to CPI um but the external sources uh particularly electricity and natural gas are quite Dynamic um we are projecting uh 2.9% growth for next year uh this year we saw 6% mostly on the heels of natural gas and a surprising Resurgence in telephone which has uh gone down uh historically for the last 10 years or so has been on a a downward slope uh finally we get to property tax which is the sort of the Crux of this presentation um so we are assum uh assuming the 1% and then also some additional growth for new construction but at a uh slower growth rate than we've seen in the past based on that permit activity that I showed in an earlier slide or not expecting our uh new construction to quite keep Pace as it has in the past so 2% growth

instead of the 2 and a half to 3% we've seen in the past uh handful of years but as you can see because of that statutory limit on this one it tracks pretty close to its trend lines now we're going to just spend a few minutes talking about how Property Tax Works in Washington state um uh council members have probably seen this before but we think it's useful uh Washington is unique in that it uses a budget-based property tax so what that means is that the city council sets a dollar amount and then that dollar amount is distributed amongst the uh entire assess valuation of the taxing Authority taxing district this is different than a lot of states that use a uh a millage rate so that's they set a rate and then the that rate is charged against whatever the AV is whether goes up then the taxes go up uh how and with no limit on them or it goes down and taxes go down although we all know property uh outside of 2008 typically only goes up um so in this imaginary town of two houses a red house and a greenhouse the overall assess valuation is $800,000 with the red house being worth 350 and the greenhouse being worth $450 uh in this first year the levy the budget is $1,000 so to figure out the rate we take that ,000 budget and we divide it by the assess valuation of the entire town um per thousand so divided by a th000 and that gets us that Levy rate of $125 per th000 of assess valuation so we simply take those assess valuations of those houses we divide them by a th000 and then we

multiply that number by $125 and for the red house we get a tax bill of $437 and for the greenhouse we get a tax bill of $562 getting us that total of a th000 now in the next year couny Council authorizes that 1% Levy increase and the assess valuation goes up um but it doesn't go up equally uh the assess valuation for the Red House goes up $25,000 but the assets valuation for the greenhouse goes up $75,000 so now our budgeted Levy going up 1% so that's $10 so now our budget of Levy is $1,010 so that's the rate that the council sets we divide that by their new AV of set valuation of 900,000 per th000 and we get a levy rate of a11 12 so we take those AVS multiply them by that new Levy rate and we get a tax bill for the Red House That's $420 it has actually gone down by $16 and the greenhouse has gone up to $589 but we're still only collecting that extra $1 um so this is all just to illustrate that um as you see your Avs go up the tax is not necessarily going up at a at a commensurate rate it's dependent on how the other AVS in the neighborhood and in the taxing Authority have gone up the dollar amount that we collect can only go up by 1% plus new construction but we haven't got didn't get into that in this model so what does that mean for Bellingham uh for 2025 we are proposing that 1% increase you can see that's going to raise with new construction projections about $436,000 I would say all of these rates all of this new construction is all total estimate we have not got our

uh new asset valuation or any of that new construction numbers from the county yet uh hoping to get that soon um and our Levy rate we project will go down from almost a $150 a 49 to somewhere around $44 what that means as an estimated cost increase for a $600,000 home is a about $160 tax increase all things being equal it's a difficult thing to thread but that's I say educated guesstimate just a little bit more on property taxes where they go uh city of Bellingham accounts for 19% uh in 2024 of uh a Bellingham homes property tax bill you can see uh the vast majority goes to the Bellingham School District and the Washington state general fund and schools fund with the county and the port making up smaller amounts the general fund here our general fund makes up about 10% overall and then this year we are proposing to take this 1.61% of the pension and drop that into the general fund as well so finally um looking at our long-term uh general fund Outlook we've shown this chart to council many times just to explain it for those watching the blue area is revenues the line is expenditures and the bars are reserves of various types but with the uh lighter green being the emergency reserve and this hashed green being uh what we would to make up to what we would want the emergency Reserve to be in these out years as it declines so this is the we can see so oh sorry and the the lighter and the orange are uh the projection and the darker and the yellow are the past so as you can see we

uh leveraged a bunch of new revenues uh for 2025 which I spoke about to bring that up uh we will expect that to decline afterwards uh and as we unless we find some additional revenues we've also brought spending down slightly um but uh not enough to completely close the gap today uh Council was presented with a budget amendment that added uh $10 million to our budget some of that was anticipated uh but a big chunk of it was not we believe that'll change our estimated beginning reserve for 2025 by about $6 million uh downward by about $6 million so you can see how that changes um our uh Reserves at the end of 2025 we now anticipate that if the budget is fully expended we could be dipping into our ending emergency Reserves at the end of 2025 instead of 2026 as we had predicted when we built the budget so that's not ideal um and we'll be working hard over the year to find a solution to that um but it does unfortunately take away some of the cushion that we had to find that solution um and makes the situation um a little more critical I would say so that is the revenue presentation and revenue forecast and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any ready uh council member list uh thank you uh president ham before the public hearing starts I wanted to comment on two things that we understand it but you didn't mention it this time the diversion from the law enforcement and firefighter especially the firefighters P fund that's because the firefighters pension is fully funded

already it's actually slightly over 100% funded so we can afford to temporarily stop funding it and it'll still be fully funded um and then I pr appreciate you mentioning the fact that property values may go up um but that doesn't mean property taxes go up if it worked that way the city would be rolling in money because we all know what happens to property value so it doesn't work that way I just want to make sure the public understood that because that might explain why we're looking at budget problems rather than a budget surplus goad and thank you for pointing that out about the uh the pension I will just add it is funded at about 134% so so well over 100% funded okay any other comments or questions from Council before I open up the public hearing okay I'm going to open up the public hearing just in a moment before I do we're having some changes here tonight so speakers for this public hearing the next one or public comment later in the meeting will use the upper uh balcony microphone if you're unable to get up the stairs uh we'll use the microphone where Mr uh or director ASB Oren is sitting here at the table so speakers use your use the um the microphone at the top of the stairs and then miss getet will read the names I believe we have a at least a couple speakers here for this public hearing the timer here is um on the big screen uh so just you know just make sure you're paying attention to that 3 minutes for each uh speaker please um make sure that the the comments

areain only to the to the public hearing to the to the content of of what Mr Alman just provided there will be an opport there's a public comment later in the in the meeting okay we have two individuals who signed up to speak tonight uh was Doug Rell Yoshi and Jonah Rand okay yeah from up there thank you uh thank you um members of the audience and staff uh those watching at home city council Madame mayor um I would say that it doesn't matter whether this passed or not money and property are traps they literally don't exist money and property are delusions that we get trapped in this is a piece of paper this dollar bill is a piece of paper it literally does zero work none whatsoever piece of paper get me a drink of water it can't do anything on a daily basis we get in the Trap of thinking that money does work thinking that we own something when Europeans first came here and introduced the idea of buying something to indigenous tribes indigenous tribes looked at the Europeans like you must be crazy you think you can buy the sky you think you can buy the land it is insane to think that we own anything so it doesn't matter whether it's Pastor or not we are stewards of a gift all of this 100% everything is a gift we are stewards of a gift what matters is am I'm making a healthy choice or an unhealthy Choice Money chasing after money guarantees we will make unhealthy choices it's a drug a billionaire is a drug addict chasing after property guarantees we will make unhealthy choices

it doesn't exist we own nothing we are stewards of a gift am I making healthier choices or am I making unhealthier choices that is the question we should be talking about thank you thank you hello my name is Jonah uh and I just wanted to uh a uh first just give my support for increasing uh the belly ham property taxes I do uh understand that you know in times of deficit uh one of the things you do have to do sometimes is increased taxes to make up for the loss even if it only 10% can go to that uh like uh to our you know deficit fund or general fund uh but I would also like to add uh if I may uh that I don't agree with hiring uh two additional police officers on bike Force um especially during a deficit uh especially when we're talking about cutting departments 5 to 10% adding to our largest Department uh already seems uh not the best decision in my opinion uh especially because later in the line when we're going to have to make tough decisions about which department is to cut it's a lot better never to hire people than to be forced to fire people um I think in you know if we didn't hire two police officers in 5 years this going to be a to about a million in salaries assuming they make 100 Grand each you know uh so a million dollars may not seem like a lot when it comes to Bellingham budgets but between a million and zero a million is going to seem like all the money in the world thank you that's all I have thanks joh that concludes our sign up list okay I'll close the public

hearing and bring it back to council Council uh this is for information discussion only no decision needs to be rendered today do you have any further comments here okay seeing none I'll go ahead and move us to the next public hearing next public hearing is an ordinance relating to the preservation of landmark trees and extending the interim development regulations with respect to Landmark thank you uh Forest to uh Landmark trees throughout the city on May 20th 2024 the city council adopted an emergency ordinance relating to the preservation of landmark trees and establish interim uh development regulations with respect to Landmark trees throughout the city following the adoption of of the emergency ordinance the city held a public hearing on July 15 2024 after receiving public comment the city council chose to retain the interim ordinance which remains in effect until November 19th 2024 unless a subsequent action is taken to extend the interim ordinance City staff is requesting the ability to extend the interim uh ordinance for further 6 months to allow for time to go through the type 6 legislative process and here take us through is director Blake lion thank you and good evening again Blake lion director of planning and Community Development uh not much additional information to provide for you this evening other than the fact that um you may recall and we've done them fairly recently where we have either a moratorium or an interim ordinance and we do have to require or go

through a public hearing notice in order to extend one of the things I did want to elaborate on is that as we went through the adoption of the initial emergency ordinance and then the um intervening months after that we utilized the majority of that time to establish the Bellingham Landmark tree committee uh which is a kind of a three- member staff committee that's evaluating some of these we went through and we reviewing both code enforcement requests for those that thought that there was concerns about a tree being brought down inappropriately we had some other landmark tree nominations um and and then we spent a significant amount of time working with property owners developers uh design professionals working through the implications of this ordinance to a higher degree than we anticipated um it's safe to say and I mentioned this at our last time we reviewed this that the implications of the things that have come out of this are having the U effect of retaining the trees but it also is placing a pretty heavy burden and up front burden on development activity in terms of the amount of effort that needs to go in to determine if a project is viable and so that's certainly something that we didn't anticipate the full impact of that and so we're asking that we continue this for that additional six months to give us the opportunity to work through some of those concerning issues there is also the possibility that if we're not able to do that entirely within the 6 months we may

be back for an additional extension but that's the request that's in front of you tonight there are no suggested uh substantial amendments at this point in time it is just carrying forward what we have U for you already on the books that is the recommended action the alternative should you choose not to do that is to take no action in which the intermal ordinance would then expire we would revert back to what we previously had so those are the two options that are in front of you this evening Happ happy to try to answer any questions should you have any or we can certainly take public comment thank you um Council any questions for Mr lion go ahead so I guess before the hearing just to confirm the interim ordinance that's in our packet though is slightly different than the ordinance that was previously approved right yes some I made the mistake of including the first version of it there was the amendment that got included by council member liest that talked about the beautification piece so we are going to retain the existing ordinance as it was adopted and signed with the exception that is no longer an emergency it's only in reference to the interim ordinance okay any other questions for director line okay seeing on I'll go ahead and open up public hearing just another reminder it's kind of new upper balcony microphone for speakers tonight and you gu we'll call we can call a few names at our time yeah so first up we have uh Doug Rell Yoshi Carrie Burnside and then Amy Berger

mcnet uh again thank you everyone for being here and participating in this process um I support uh passing this to protect trees um there was a study done not too long ago uh that showed that trees communicate with each other in the soils there's actual communication happening where a an older tree will recognize its Offspring and help its Offspring trees also communicate at higher frequencies than we do that they they communicate through the air at 125,000 cycles per second which is way above our ability to hear it that is trees are living beings like you and I who communicate like you and I and to the extent that we treat them as nothing and Destroy them willy-nilly we do the same to ourselves karma is the law the way we treat other beings is the way we treat ourselves if we treat trees as less than if we destroy them willy-nilly if we think their cries don't matter because they do cry you know I for the longest time I remember people telling me I love the smell of cut grass the smell of cut grass is the grass screaming that is how the plants communicate Danger we live in a place that is full of living beings that communicate with each other like we do and we treat them like nothing there is a guarantee that we will do that to ourselves what is the climate crisis we ignore the natural world around us pretending we're all that matters and eventually the natural world bites back I support preserving the trees they're infinitely valuable like each of us is infinitely valuable

cannot be replaced I thank you all for allowing me to speak thank you good evening Council City staff uh mayor L and fellow community members my name is Carrie bernside I'm the Silver Beach neighborhood association president and I'm asking you to support uh City staff's request to extend uh the time to be able to work on the Legacy tree ordinance the additional 6 months maintaining a robust tree canopy is essential in Urban Development for numerous reasons it significantly improves air quality by filtering pollutants and provide shade which reduces the urban heat effect resulting in lower energy costs and improve Public Health trees also play a crucial role in storm water management by absorbing rainfall which mitigates flooding and reduces the burden on drain systems additionally being in the Silver Beach uh neighborhood I want to stress the importance of having a robust tree canopy in our Watershed as it does reduce the amount of phosphorus going into Lake Wacom our drinking water thank you for your time and I'll keep it brief good evening all right and then after Amy have Oli tacy Michael furer and Laura Weiss good evening my name is Amy Berger mcnet I came to Bellingham in 1999 and currently live in the tw20 neighborhood when I first heard of The Landmark tree ordinance I thought what a great idea Bellingham is growing and changing but this ordinance shows that the council values our community trees I support the extension of the interm ordinance for a further 6 months to

work through the legislative process trees helped me personally by their calming presence during covid I had I would walk through the neighborhood parks and feel rejuvenated between my shifts as a microbiologist at the St Joseph Hospital while walking in the Park trails I often interact with other regulars in my experience most are not aware of this Ord orance but many do notice the orange survey tape on trees wonder why it's there and are concerned that the trees may be cut down neighbors understand the need for more housing in Bellingham they also recognize the many gifts mature trees give us I know there is a small Grove of Western red Cedars this species needs much water to live and yet the Grove survived a heat Dome near the top of a hillside this is clear evidence of the amount of water coming down that Hill what will happen to the homes downhill if those trees are removed I understand developing infill housing is complicated but I think we have a smart willing Community which is capable of Creative Solutions so gather your wisdom and find the balanced path for trees are essential part of this community thank you thank you all right good evening Council ali taii uh thank you for the opportunity to comment again on this matter uh as I expressed at the July hearing I have some serious concerns about this ordinance the fiscal impact the social impact and the impact on housing uh I continue to question the emergency nature of this ordinance it feels like it's a distraction

for much more pressing matters that we have at hand in our community and that there is no real emergency here uh as a practi practitioner who works with homeowners landlords tenants developers Engineers Architects biologists and arborists I can tell you from experience that there's one word to describe how this ordinance has affected our development Community chaos it is absolute chaos the ordinance is adding significant uncertainty to design and development processes increasing costs and generating processing delays the focus on preservation is impacting unit yield on sites already particularly larger Greenfield sites but also on smaller infield sites you have placed staff in an impossible position the ordinance is filled with qualitative standards that make it impossible for staff to provide consistent and transparent guidance to applicants for projects Public Works parks and planning all have different perspectives on this issue I have personally experienced this on numerous occasions in the past six months people are frustrated they are scared to engage in development they are walking away from development opportunities in our community because of this um I've had individual staffers tell me they are EX exhausted by the focus on trees and that it is impacting their ability to complete more important tasks like processing permits and moving forward on housing and other initiatives that should be our priorities we should be working on things like parking reform the benefits

of which are clear data supported and move the needle on our housing crisis instead that's been pushed off we haven't done anything with it since that was moved forward by Council not one thing wor of all this ordinance has increased division in our community pitting preservationists against homeowners and Developers ERS I recently had a project where we paid a five figure sum to have all of the trees on a site surveyed so that we could attempt to design a project that balanced preservation and housing during the public comment we received a comment from a nonprofit indicating that they had sent a crew out to the site and they felt that there was more significant in Landmark trees than the surveyor indicated so this member of the public admitted in writing to trespassing on private property and felt the need to contest a professional surveyor's work that we had paid significant funds for I can't imagine why the public might feel empowered to engage in this type of behavior could it be that the ordinance literally encourages this type of behavior nominating trees on other people's property taking ownership of other people's property without permission frankly I believe that our community is off the rails on the issue of trees it is wild right now what's going on in the conversations with the people I work with we're acting against our own self-interest we're acting against our housing needs and we're doing this in a fashion that is divisive it's not fact-based and it's

generating negative outcomes already um I encourage Council to abandon this ill thought out ordinance reflect on what we're gaining from the effort and what we're losing and refocus on our other legislative priorities that can actually move the needle on real crisises like housing I'd be happy to discuss this with any of you one-onone and you can get some uh Real World Experience on what we're going through because of this decision the council has made thank you for your time hello I'm Michael fear from the executive director w a million trees project just wanted to speak briefly here in support of the six-month extension uh The Landmark tree ordinance is an important piece of forward Movement by the city to protect its tree canopy which is increasingly urgent as we Face uh climate resiliency issues you know heat Dome effects increased flooding Etc um and uh and we also um are very glad that the uh City moved forward to the landmark tree ordinance in advance of completing the remainder of the urban Forest plan so by letting the six-month process continue um that would be able to allow that good forward early step to move forward um through the rest of the legislative process and I just wanted to say that as a final comment there are other communities that have success balanced um mature tree preservation and uh increased housing growth I think we can do that as a community um and by working through the landmark tree ordinance through the legislative process that discussion

can be facilitated further and I think that's a positive thing for our city thank you very much Michael good evening um my name is Laura Weiss and I live in Bellingham and I also I serve on the board of the WKA million trees project as you heard from Michael we support the six-month extension of this um uh of the the law um this ordinance is a great first step toward improving protections for our Urban forests and there are lots of data to tell us that trees are critical to helping reduce flooding manage storm water um reduce the negative effects of from climate change heat Islands things you've heard of before and of course generally improve our quality of life as other speakers excuse me have spoken to um so I really appreciate your efforts in that regard and thanks for listening thanks laa that concludes the sign up thank you I'll now close the public hearing and bring it back to council we are being asked to pass this ordinance or make a decision passing this ordinance Council council member Anderson thank you and thank you to the speakers um it is about balance we do need housing but I also believe that there is a lot of value um to the preservation of our large trees and we need to get this right I I also trust in our um Builders our planners and our staff that when we're looking at Parcels that has a large Heritage tree we're going to figure out how to preserve but also maximize that ability and I hope that in the big picture what's looking at is you know it might mean

that we increase the envelope we increase the height um we increase the development ability whether it's through parking reduction or something else in exchange um this for me is about climate change and the importance of the trees to provide the uh mitigation for hydrology the storm water um the heat domes there's external costs that are going to come to the residents and um based on uh what's going to happen well what's happening now with our climate and what's going to happen in the future and trees are only one part it won't be a solution but it will help mitigate some of those impacts and so I I do believe in the importance of getting this right and if staff are saying that they need more time before they can bring It Forward I do support that so with that I move um approval of passing this extension second Mo been made by council member Anderson second by council member Williams council member liquis yeah so in this is a very important topic but in some ways this is merely a procedural vote this is an extension that we knew was coming um to make it clear because it's it's it's often used rhetorically this was an emergency ordinance not because it was actually more important than other things emergency is a technical detail has to do with the fact that our ordinances go through two separate readings generally two weeks apart and then don't take effect for another 15 days after that as a general rule it's that delay that the emergency Ordinance Works around that's the

only sense in which is an emergency um um and then we immediately after we passed it we instructed the staff to begin a full legislative review of the process or of the legislation why because we wer we weren't sure we got it right okay we didn't know if we had struck the right balance there were things in there that surprised me that I did not expect and I wouldn't have normally supported in a full legislative process where we could have amended as we went along but again in an emergency procedure you you don't amend that way because it's being done on a shortened Time Track so did we get it right I don't really think so but we're going to find out and the city council has not yet expressed an opinion because we're still waiting to hear back so rather than this being something which sort of like is taking up all our time we actually put it on the regular track alongside other work that's why we gave ourselves six months or a year to work on it so it doesn't push out other important priorities planning director and I had a conversation today on parking reforms and parking mandates and minimums those conversations continue so this is a way procedurally of making sure that this ordinance goes through the full process alongside the other important uh priorities does not push anything out but it's not also not pushed out itself so this is a procedural vote I think we need to get the right balance on trees and housing and our other Community Values and to do that we need the time

to get it right and I'll be supporting the extension go ahead counc pman thank you um I think this ordinance is a really great example of how sometimes finding that right balance as a legislator is pretty difficult when you've got uh values and priorities that are at the top of your list um that that aren't necessarily in perfect harmony with each other and so finding that Harmony at least as best as we can um agree agreed I don't think this ordinance is perfect which is one of the reasons why we or I don't the ordinance that was passed isn't perfect staff still needs some time to uh really hash it out Planning Commission I believe is still uh going to be looking at this and and hashing it out as well um you know here we've got an example where Yes trees are very important uh for combating our our climate crisis but so our dense walkable cities um and uh making sure that we can build as many new units as possible to help combat our homelessness crisis and our housing crisis um are also really important priorities so we've got nice ball of priorities here and really taking the time to go through and figure out how those priorities should be in relationship with each other uh is really important uh so even though what we've got right now is not perfect I think it's important that we give give staff in particular the time to really work these things out and so supporting uh supporting keeping this on the books for now okay motions been made by council member Anderson second by

council member Williams any further discussion council member Stone so I guess to director lion to follow up on the prior question so clarification that we're voting on The ordinance that was originally passed which I don't believe is right the ordinance on our packet um but based on feedback in your team obviously being tasked with right the management of this process in the interim right I mean while while the um this interim ordinance is in place having to navigate um any requests that come forward right with respect to the trees the question is are there any um are there any proposed changes or needs at this time to help with Clarity or to make your team's job you know easier over the next six months Andor in tandem I don't know legally are we able to make changes to this interim ordinance um in the interim or not I think the most direct way to answer answer to that is that really what council member husand said this is there's we need the opportunity to go through and find those balances find those opportunities to do that both with our housing criteria with the parking reform with this the interdependency that weaves with all of this is highly critical and so to kind of Wordsmith it in this form and fashion wouldn't do it justice and so we need that's why we wanted to request the additional time um are there potential enhancements or refinements can be made absolutely and we expect those to be uh brought forward both to the Planning Commission and then ultimately the

city council but I would not suggest that we do anything this evening to that effect further questions comments okay motions been made and seconded uh all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carry 7 Z go ahead before we leave this topic behind I'm wondering uh Mr liyon can you tell us are we yet receiving applications for uh the accommodations were made so development can proceed under circumstances Andor have we received nominations for landmark trees is the process already ongoing of of those types of requests for your staff to process yes we've received a number of different Landmark tree requests uh that have gone through and we've processed those we've seen some requests by development uh applicants that have asked to remove Landmark trees as a result of it being an impediment to the uh development proposal that's been in front of them um and we've seen some that where Landmark trees are not of a healthy nature at the moment and so that warranted removal so the ordinance as it's currently written provides for an opportunity to do what they call a trackx assessment which is a certified arest goes through and evaluates the current health of the tree um that goes through that landmark tree committee which is currently made up of a representative of a of a planning staff member a public works staff member in the Parks two of which are arborous and then they make a recommendation to me so we have seen some removals of trees when it's when

it's warranted based on the development proposal what we have not yet fully exercised is when there's a development proposal that is asking for some additional um considerations with regard to setback backs or Heights or other things like that that has yet to present itself but we've also seen uh as was alluded to in one of the this evening's public comments that there's a number of and I think this is probably the biggest portion that we need to try to address is that the amount of work that goes into determining that project's feasibility and viability upfront is is significant and so that's what we need to try to see if we can find that balance around other questions comments okay I'll move us along here next item up in the agenda is mayor's report good evening Council good member City staff and members of the community that are here tonight um I have appointments to the Transportation Commission for your approval and I am seeking to reappoint Addie C Jackie Quinn and Tim Wilder to their final terms on the Planning Commission move approval second Transportation Commission or Planning Commission Transportation okay all right motion made by who's motion um council member Anderson second by council member huthman any further discussion council member so um so just to note in the packet I know that one of the applications I believe it was um Jackie Quinn's application it looked like there was an uploaded file just the letter of interest that wasn't included in the packet and

just going forward just a request the administration that I know sometimes people's um resumés or other support documents are included so just to ensure going for that that's included but I'd review those and don't have any concerns it was just a note so thanks okay motion been made in second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 7-0 thank you the next is um an update on some Meridian Street impacts and in case you missed the news earlier today we have two important projects that will impact traffic in our community along mydan Street which is a major thoroughfare so the first is that there will be a permanent closure of the I5 northbound on-ramp access at i5 and Meridian just before Bellis Fair this closure addresses some very real safety concerns and will improve traffic flow along Meridian Street and the work underway to make this change is happening now and we are also starting a multi-year sewer infrastructure project to replace aging sewer Ms along meran Street between Orchard Drive and Van Wick Road this crucial work is expected to take about two years and will help prevent sewer overflows and support thousands of potential units of future heal growth most of this work will occur at night from 7:00 p.m.

to reduce traffic disruptions but we should all expect that some Daytime disruption could occur and you can see the city's website for more details the next is that we received some important updates about individuals experiencing homelessness in our community earlier we had several informative presentations this morning about the services to support community members experience ing houselessness updates were provided on the severe weather shelter for the upcoming winter season the new YWCA shelter for women and children results of the 2024 point in time count and the community inter Room Shower program that has been offered at City Hall for the last year I encourage community members to watch the video of the community and economic development committee meeting from this morning to learn more about these services and our important Community Partners um who help us in this work and lastly um I wanted to speak just a little bit more about the budget amendment that we brought forth for council's consideration this afternoon we brought forth an amendment to the 2324 budget and we are requesting to add 10.8 million to the general fund to ensure the fire and police departments have enough adequate budget authority to continue regular operations through the remainder of this year the shortfalls are largely due to $3 million um in the police budget for both increased jail costs and home monitoring costs for jailed diversion it also includes $2.5 million in overtime and an additional

3.5 million in salaries and benefits in our fire department and while these adjustments are absolutely necessary they were of a larger scale than we had anticipated and this adjustment was was shown by Deputy longman's presentation takes a bigger bite out of our reserves than we had originally projected this illustrates just how fluid the city's budget situation is and for now we believe that our 2025 proposed budget is unaffected however I do want to make it clear that in the coming days weeks and months I will be working alongside our city leadership team all of you as council members our city employees and the community at large to understand the longer term impacts and the requisite actions that are necessary as a result in our City's key reserves so and the mayor's report tonight thank you thank you mayor well then go turn to our um Council standing committee meetings our first one this morning uh was community and economic development that's ched by council member jce cotton thank you president Hamill I'm joined on that committee by council members Huffman and stone but um the full council is in attendance today the mayor kind of stole my thunder uh but uh we received um four presentations this morning the first was a presentation on the 2024 point in time count report um and chrisen arreo from the Wacom County health and Community Services um and Terry Bryant with um wcom homeless service center uh made a presentation about the 2024 Point time account report an annual

account of the unduplicated number of individuals experiencing homelessness in our community and the presentation addressed some of the larger themes over the last few point and time count reports um demographic Trends and how those local Trends align with Trend Statewide um as well as the mechanics um and how that count with uh conducted um I'll Echo the mayor and say I encourage folks to go and listen to that recording our second item was a briefing from wam County on the 2024 2025 winter shelter um severe weather shelter um plans uh wam county has been actively pursuing shelter options for the 2024 2025 winter season for the past several months in summer of 2024 wam County published a request for proposals for housing related services um but did not receive any applications for either severe weather or seasonal winter shelters facing um that lack of an outside operator um wam County um plans to reprise their role as a primary operator and um again chrisen AIO um briefed uh the council um about their current winter shelter plans um and uh progress made made to date um and at a future meeting um here will uh the city will be asked to approve an interlocal agreement to support winter severe um shelter in the amount of 100,000 um we are looking at an uh opening date of hopefully mid November but there are still many pieces still in Works uh in the work um our third item sorry this is a monologue tonight uh was a council briefing on the new YWCA emergency shelter for women and

children and the city supported uh the ywca's acquisition of 315 Lakeway for an emergency shelter for women and children providing a $1.39 million deferred loan um this amount was anticipated in the action plan and approved by City Council in May in addition um staff is recommending um funding the ywca's application for the renovations needed to transition this property from an office building to a shelter renovation funding was not anticipated in the action plan there our staff has um informed Council earlier today of this additional action and um the YWCA will be available uh or provided a um an overview of the new facility including um the program and services that will be provided next one uh and our final item was a council briefing on the community interim shower program um last year the city council authorized a budget expenditure of $320,000 to contract with the opportunity Council to operate an interim public shower program at the rear parking lot of City Hall um following that in October 16th 2023 the city council authorized an interlocal agreement with won County to pay for 50% of the operations cost and the program officially open opened for service November 10th 2023 and since has provided over 4,000 free shower uh showers to the community and and um in the uh presentation earlier today um uh Marissa shopac um opportunity Council we heard about some of the challenges and key takeaways of that program as well as um uh plans at the way station to take over that um

really important function um and with that I'll if anybody has any other comments I will just turn it back to president all right thank you uh the next Committee of uh this morning was Committee of the whole uh we had several items this morning the first was a budget work session um and this went over um pardon me just a second we get to the page here um parks and wreck and uh planning um and Community Development uh dep Department budgets and the next budget work session will occur on October 28th 2024 um I would encourage folks who are interested in these budgets um to go back and look at the video which will be posted tomorrow um on BT tv10 the next item was an ordinance amending the 2023 2024 biannual budget so amendment number 15 this is the one that the mayor uh just described briefly up here this ordinance uh will amend the 2023 2024 by anual budget to add 10.8 million do to the general fund to ensure ongoing operations to fire and police departments make sure that they have adequate budget authority to continue the regular operations for the end of the year this morning the committee voted to pass this ordinance and I so move second motion made by the chair and seconded by council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 next item was a work session regarding uh landlord tenant relationship or relations rather and unfair or excessive fees and residential rental

agreements and leases uh this is an increasing concern in our community and many others um and for many is this is the proliferation of various fees associated with residential dwelling applications lot rental rates leases and Andor purchase agreements examples of such fees also refer to as junk fees include movement fees rental application fees pet fees and various administrative fees some exceed the actual cost of a given service they're not linked to an expense are misleading or not disclosed in advance in followup to the committee of the whole discussion on September 30th 24 Council uh discussed proposed actions to address um potential junk fees in Bellingham as described in the attach draft ordinance uh from Council Members cotton and list and basically today um the committee passed a a motion to adopt the revised ordinance draft in the language or in the in the um packet but rather this is not this is adopting the language it's not adopting the actual ordinance so I just want to be clear on that that we didn't pass an ordinance today we passed um the the motion to um adopt the the language and this revised ordinance uh within the packet uh and I so move second motion made by the chair and second by council member Williams any discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor goad you um the one of the explanations is that the document is going to form the um foundation for further public Outreach on this issue so um it wasn't adopting an ordinance it was adopting a

draft to be used to stimulate discussion uh correct and then there's one other motion that was made in that in that committee that I'll get to you in just a second c m cot did you have any okay all right all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed exensions recusals motion carry 70 committee also passed a motion to have another work session and to adopt the goal on this issue and to adopt the goal language of expanding existing engagement and that motion uh that amend amended motion uh passed uh this morning or I guess it this afternoon and I so move second motion made by the chair second by council member Williams any further discussion on this one go ahead council member Anderson just to share a little bit on the timeline because it sounds a little disjointed um we did decide of two versions which one to move forward to work on um I believe staff will be taking a look at that version be able to provide feedback we're going to have a work session um so that like all the questions or comments or things that we want to refine we'll have that opportunity and then what we're um we kind of gave direction for how community outreach is going to work we had several versions to choose from that process will start after all that work I just listed um has been accomplished so there will be uh further Outreach to various stakeholders in the community once we get things um vetted through staff and us and have a more refined version to take out to then get more feedback so um it's

not going to be on a slow train going across the United States and back so we're not going to take a year on it but um it is going to be something that will probably be a couple of months um that we'll be um vetting this through so um quick but not extremely Speedy okay thanks for the contexts councilman randerson any other uh discussion on this motion okay motion made and seconded all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion Carri 70 that will take us to old and new business other any items for old new um do we need to do the one on the manufactured homes as well I'm I'm sorry verify that it's also going I apologize let me just get to that real quick you thank you for catching that um we also had we had a separate um agenda Bill and this was a work session regarding manufactured mobile home uh landlord tenant relations uh and unfair uh excessive uh fees and manufactured mobile home uh lease payments I'm not going to read the statements almost exactly the same as the one that that we just read uh this um this afternoon the committee passed um the revised um draft language in the in the packet and ISO move second motion been made by the chair and second by council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carries 70 thanks cons liqu for catching that one appreciate it uh that will take us to old new business okay seeing none that will take us to

Executive session we had nine items uh this afternoon first was a potential litigation claim number 2024 -40 uh staff provided information on a potential litigation matter this was for information and discussion no action was taken second was litigation Steen versus city of Bellingham uh both of these items were with Mike good he's one of our attorneys staff provided information on litigation matters for information discussion no action was taken third item was labor relations with Sullivan staff provided information on the proposed 2024 2026 collective bargaining agreement between the city and I local 106b and will now ENT entertain a motion to ratify the agreement reached with the following general terms duration January 1st 2024 through December 31st 2026 wages and compens ation effective January 20 or January 1st 2024 wage increase of 4% and Market adjustment of 1.5% effective January 1st 2025 wage increase of 4% effective January 1st 2026 wage increase of 3.75% effective upon ratification increase the Deferred Compensation employer match by 0.25% increase of 4% to base salary for captains and inspector s bilingual premium of 1% of salary increased longevity pay by .5% at 10 years of service and 1.5% at 15 years of service increase the um merp contributions by uh $50 per month effective January 1st 2024 and an increase or uh an additional $25 per month effective January 1st 2025 then lastly medical insurance increase the employer contribution to medical insurance by 6%

per year move approval second motions been made by council member Huffman and second my council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 uh next item was Labor Relations collective bargaining strategy also a Sullivan staff provided information on a labor relations matter this was for information and discussion no action was taken cyber security pardon me was with uh berdick staff provided information on a cyber security matter for information and discussion no action was taken potential property acquisition this with Matt stamps we had actually three of those uh and staff provided information on a potential Lake W or three Lake Wacom Watershed property Acquisitions for information and discussion no action was taken um let's see I need to actually get a vote two votes on on on these here so um on the second Lake Walkin property um acquisition I'll entertain a motion authorize the mayor to close a real estate transaction described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with the property owner Brian Huber with a purchase price of $75,000 with closing to occur on or around December 20th 2024 move approval second motion made by council member Williams and second by council member Huffman any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carry 70 and the third um potential property

acquisition also with mat stamps uh was a potential Lake Wacom Watershed property acquisition totaling 0.13 Acres with one potential development unit and I'll will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to close the real estate transaction described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with the property owner Douglas and cample trust with the purchase price of $76,000 when with closing to occur honor around November 1st 2024 move approval second motion made by council member Williams and second by council member liist any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppos exensions recusals motion carry 70 last item was a security um uh item with uh City attorney Mariner staff provided information on a security matter from this was for information discussion no action was taken that'll take us to um our Public Works and natural resources committee thank you very much president Hamill um I was joined this afternoon on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and Lila Quist we had five items before us the first was agenda bill 24290 this is a noise variance um Washington State Department of Transportation regarding the Washington State Department transportations work on I5 and State Route 542 so wash do is requesting a variance from the requirements of the city's noise ordinance for construction related to roadway preservation projects the work will be at night in the residential area in the vicinity

of the I5 northbound to King Street ramp the Ohio Street to I5 southbound southbound ramp and State Route 542 from approximately McLoud road to Britain Road wash do has requested to complete the work at night to minimize traffic impacts and to ensure the safety of both workers and residents washa's in the process right now of hiring a contractor to perform the work the noise variance would allow for seven non-consecutive work nights between July 8th 2025 and September 25th 2026 so that's a large span of a little over a year um for those seven non-consecutive nights of work um staff recommended um was in agreement with the work happening at night as this is in the public interest and there was unanimous recommendation from the committee to move approval of the noise variance and ISO move second motion made by the chair and second by council member Anderson any discussion on this one all right seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carries 70 thank you the next item before us was agenda bill 24291 this is a bid award for job order Contracting um Construction Services this is Bid number um 6 60 b-224 so the city issued a request for proposals for General construction work under the city's job order Contracting otherwise known as jock program the city's request specified that up to two firms would be awarded contracts the city received four responses which were publicly open opened on September 3rd 2024 for qualifications and on

September 17th 2024 for pricing Forma construction and Dawson construction submitted the two highest scoring proposals per state law the contract is subject to a maximum term of three years and a maximum contract price of $4 million per year apprenticeship requirements um apply in accordance with state law for The Jock programs and so just highlighting that that's with respect to um particular projects over $350,000 and including 600 labor hours in a single trade um so for this work there would be multiple trades um potentially involved this afternoon there was um unanimous recommendation from the committee a motion to award the contracts to Forma construction and Dawson construction and ISO move second motion made by council member um Stone the chair and U second by council member Anderson any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 the next item before us was agenda bill 24292 this is a bid award for indefinite delivery indefinite quantity overhead door repair services this is Bid number b-224 city issued a request for bids for overhead door maintenance and repair services to be performed under an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract an idiq contract is an on on call contract model that allows the city to procure work eff efficiently as needs arise by issuing individual work orders for each discrete project each work order is priced based upon the labor and material markups

provided in the contractor's bid the city received one bid which was publicly opened on September 24th 2024 overhead door of Bellingham was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $15,452.57 b-224 to Overhead Door of Bellingham and I so move second motion's been made by the chair and second by council member Anderson any further discussion seeing none and all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion car 70 next item was agenda bill 24293 this is a contract award for little Squalicum water quality retrofits this is phase one bid number 22 b-224 EV 173 so this project will construct new enhanced storm water treatment systems at locations along Lindberg and gnome Street in the Birchwood neighborhood the city received five bids which were publicly opened on September 18th 2024 Faber Construction Corporation was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 1,476 1958 including any applicable Washington state sales or use tax the engineer estimate was 1,342 7765 and the project includes an apprenticeship hour requirement um just wanting to note this is a multiphase project um and with respect to this phase the city received a grant from the Department of ecology water quality combined financial assistance program for $685,000 that requires a 25% City match um so the remainder of the project costs will be funded from the city's storm and surface Water Utility Fund um and this afternoon the committee moved

unanimously to move the award of the contract for bid 22 b-224 to fav Construction Corporation and is so move second made by the chair and second by council member requist any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed exensions recusals motion carry 70 the last item before us was agenda bill 24294 um this is the electric avenue bridge emergency repair update so during a June 3rd 2024 special inspection of the electric avenue bridge it was discovered that multiple structural elements had substantially degraded since the last inspection requiring immediate closure of the bridge the bridge was reopened to a single Lane of traffic on June 12th 2024 and on June 17th 2024 city council approved a resolution declaring an emergency to accelerate Bridge repairs to restore two-way traffic on September 9th 2024 the city closed the bridge again for an anticipated two-e construction period the emergency repairs were completed ahead of schedule and the bridge reopened to two-way traffic on September 18th 2024 City staff provided an update on the emergency repair work and plans to replace the bridge going forward so we were join joined by both um inter and Public Works co-directors um Mike Olinger and Joel fun and just wanting to confirm that going forward um well with the work that's been done so Ram Construction completed the repairs on the bridge um was approximately $154,000 for that work in addition to City staff um cruise and design that also

supported that project so the total was approximately $250,000 for the repair um and again just noting that this is a temporary repair at this time there's only limited load restrictions on the bridge so um for the most part it's safe um for travel of large Vehicles the load restriction applies though to our fire ladder trucks um at this time that's still restricted so the importance of um replacing this bridge is still a high priority and the city will be seeking a grant um from the state and the fhwa um likely the end of 2025 we're hoping to be able to initiate that work but it will be a large project 6 to n months um related to that just wanted to highlight the mayor had mentioned this afternoon that there had been some additional inquiry or concerns from community members just about you know after the spillage in the lake if it was safe um to be utilizing the lake there at blal Donovan and in that area and just confirming that yes we've received um you know clearance that everything is is good and safe and so fortunately um that resource has been um yeah put back in good in good standing and good condition and there will be continued work on this item in the future but at this time it was simply for information and discussion only and there was no action taken so with that that was end of committee and I'll send it back to you president Hammer thank you council member Stone the next committee this afternoon was Parks and Recreation that's chaired by uh council member skip

Williams thank you president Hamill uh we only had two items on our our agenda this after afternoon the first is agenda bill 24296 which was a contract award to premium Services Incorporated for Boulevard um for the Boulevard Park Shoreline and Public Access enhancements and the bid number was 64b uh 2024 uh the project in includ clud creation and enhancement of two Beach areas at a Boulevard Park to improve Public Access and address the ongoing erosion and this is the part of the park by the woods coffee shop completion of this project will increase public access to the Shor line through uh removal of the rock armor from the beaches removal of the failing uh revetments causing some of the erosion the the addition of a stable Trail um adding educational signage to the site and uh developing some new backshore planting along the higher elevations of the beaches which will Aid in the mitigation of of the impacts from uh sea level rise and Coastal erosion the parks and wreck uh Department was awarded $500,000 from uh the Washington Recreation and conservation office to assist with the costs of this Pro uh uh project and I might add that this uh project is being funded half by um our local uh Greenways funding and the other half by the rco grant uh the city of Bellingham publicly opened 10 bids on October 8th 2024 for this project and premium Services Incorporated was the responsible uh bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $835,000 uh $800 35,3 15584 which in uh

includes all the all the sales and use taxes the engineers estimate was 26,33 4.32 so um and this uh project is not uh subject to the to The Apprentice utilization requirements because the cost is under a million dollars um and I'm just going to add that my first year on on the council working with the Parks and Recreation Department this came up and and it's uh good to see that a couple of years later it's coming to fruition and that the the uh area of that Park um will not erode away so um after a very very enlightening presentation by Gina Austin the parks project engineer and I um I would encourage all of the public if they're interested in that to watch the um the recording of our meeting so that being said um the staff recommended that we authorize this contract the the committee voted to do so and so I'll make that motion to award this contract to p uh where is it premium services in Incorporated second motion been made by the chair and second by council member hman any further discussion on this one see none all in favor signify by saying I I oppos exensions recusals motion carry 70 and our second item was for in information and discussion only and it was agenda Bill two 24297 and basically it was an update on the Civic Athletic Complex Master planning process we listen to a very once again a very enlightening presentation by Nicole Oliver our Parks and Recreation director um about the process that is being used to um make to um make this complex a more user friendly

and more and to bring it up to date she asked actually after her discussion with us played the um the um the narrated uh presentation that's on the cities engaged Bellingham page but I was really impressed with the amount of public Outreach that is being um uh used to really come up with the right answer to the use of this of this complex so I would encourage the public once again to get to engage Bellingham and uh look up the Civic Athletic Complex master plan at at engage Bellingham uh.org but the the whole process seems to be inclusive of community members stakeholders that use the facility as well as the school district um because their wish is somehow to relocate Carl koser within the confines of this area so it was a very enlightening uh conversation so I encourage all of you to look it up and listen to it because um that's going to be the future of our recre recation department so well not the total future of our recreation department but anyway but there was no action uh uh taken and uh so I will turn this back over to you pres uh president Hamill thank you okay uh next item is consent agenda approval second motion made by council member list and second by council member hutman any further discussion on this one seeing now and all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose abstentions recusal uh motion carries 70 final consideration of ordinances agenda Bill 24185 an ordinance relating to the establishment of identity theft prevention measures for registered

Residential Properties throughout the city establishing a requirement for secure locking male receptacles in chapter 6.15.18 call please Hannah Stone can I just ask a question oh sorry go ahead it's okay um so I believe that this item initially was up for third and final and then it was pulled and I thought it was being sent back to committee and I don't believe it went back to committee but I know it's back on the agenda for third and final so I was just curious if there had been any additional discussions I think the concern initially with it being pulled was with respect to the postal workers but or if there are any changes made I'm just I don't recall it uh being asked to go back to the committee what I do recall uh from that perspective is um yes we had reached out we had heard some correspondents or receiv some correspondents asking what additional efforts had been made um staff had reached out to the USPS United States Postal Service to get their feedback council member liquis had also engaged in some dialogue with the maale carriers union and our attempt to contact them as well uh he beat us to the punch had already uh resolve the issues associated with that so there wasn't any need to uh engage any further um and so we felt it was prudent to bring it back for you for third and final thank you for the follow okay okay roll call Hannah Stone hi Holly Huffman hi skipe Williams hi Lisa Anderson hi Michael lillquist hi Jay scotton hi Dan Hamill hi motion carries 70 okay

right that concludes the regular business business of the meeting and we will now move to the public comment session if you're watching live online or on BTV the broadcast will end now um however you can continue watching via Zoom at cob.org umcc Zoom or listen via phone by dialing 253 215 8782 and entering the meeting ID 2733 and the password is 9 if you are watching a recorded version of this meeting you can view the public comment videos at cob.org slccu comment all one word [Music]